Monday, January 16, 2012

Welcome to a new year: 2012. Here in Maryland this year we are commemorating the War of 1812, which took place 200 years ago. I will return to this topic shortly.

After I returned to Maryland at the end of July, it took six trips to the MVA to get my car registration and driver's license transferred to Maryland. And, for various reasons, it took me until well into October to get settled in my new apartment in the town of Linthicum (which some, including the U.S. Postal Service, insist on calling Linthicum Heights), just outside the Baltimore Beltway near Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Apart from being just two blocks from church, the thing I like most about my new neighborhood is its walkability. I often walk to the library and the post office, and I sometimes go for walks on weekends when the weather is nice. I took my camera on a couple of my early walks, back when there were still fall leaves on the trees. My tour begins at the park featuring the new Veterans Memorial (above). The sign below gives a brief history of the town and the importance of the railroad to its development.

Just across the tracks from the sign is the old Linthicum railroad station.

Across the street from the station is the entrance to J. Charles Linthicum Memorial Park. The park is a trail that runs along the west side of railroad, which is now used for light rail. Not far into the park is a memorial to Mr. Linthicum.

It is interesting that the accomplishment chosen for emphasis was Rep. Linthicum's authorship of the bill to recognize "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem (which he first submitted in 1918), rather than his leadership of the effort to repeal prohibition or his reform of the foreign service. Because it was written just off the shore of Maryland during the British bombardment of nearby Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, Marylanders take a proprietary interest in our national anthem. (That explains the state's current license plate design, which you saw at the beginning of this post.) The top of the memorial is a relief plaque of the sheet music of the first verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Continuing along the trail, I watch a two-car train zip past.

In the middle of the park is the Linthicum Light Rail Station.

I walk through the station, cross the tracks, and proceed towards downtown Linthicum. Here is the fire station, with the water tower looming behind it.

Across the street is the main shopping center. Not listed on the sign: the U.S. Post Office.

The hardware store and the water tower.

Returning to the light rail station.

Proceeding to the other side of the station and continuing for three blocks, I reach the Linthicum Branch of the Anne Arundel County Public Library. I have been borrowing a lot of recorded books to listen to while cooking and driving.

By the time I get back to the Veteran's Memorial, across the street from church, it is starting to get dark.

Marian Devotion

My Wiki Articles

Definition of the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ

Council of Chalcedon, AD 451

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.